Fish of the Family of Sturgeons. 275 



to note that the shorter the snout the longer is the caudal 

 filament. 



The colour of the upperside of the fish (judging by the spe- 

 cimens preserved in spirits of wine) is pale brownish grey, 

 light yellow below. All the fins are light grey. There are 

 no dark stripes or spots either on the body or the fins. 



The internal parts o^ Scajykirhynchus FedtschenkoisiYeexa.ct\y 

 like the corresponding parts of S. Rafinesquii described by 

 Brutzer ; consequently I will notice a few of them only. 



The vertebral column, from the occiput to the base of the 

 caudal fin, consists of about fifty-five vertebraj, of which thirty 

 are abdominal and twenty-five caudal. 



The supplementary gills, consisting of two parts and placed 

 round the back margin of the gill-covers, are perceptibly less 

 developed than those of Acipenser. 



The nasal cavities are very spacious and pierced by the 

 olfactory nerve. From the place of its entrance into the cavity 

 there radiate about twenty folds of mucous membrane, of which 

 the lower ones, having almost a vertical direction, are per- 

 ceptibly longer and thicker than the upper, which are almost 

 horizontal. 



A tolerably long intestinal tract makes several convolu- 

 tions, and is divided into an oesophagus, first stomach, second 

 stomach, small intestine, spiral valve, and rectum. The first 

 stomach is rather long and curved in front, so that it is easy 

 to distinguish in it the receiving and discharging portions ; its 

 greatest diameter is nearly in the middle, at the point of the 

 curve ; towards the end it becomes narrower. The second 

 stomach is muscular ; it forms a loop with the end of the 

 first stomach, and has the shape of a short cone. At the 

 commencement of the small intestine, which passes out of 

 the left side of the muscular stomach, there is an oval 

 slightly spatulate branch, corresponding in all probability to 

 the appendices pyloricte of other fishes. Further towards 

 the end the small intestine makes a convolution, passing into 

 the part which contains the spiral valve. This last is tolerably 

 thick at the beginning, but gets gradually thinner towards the 

 end ; it is perfectly straight, and finally enters into the narrow 

 rectum. The spiral valve has five turns. 



In a specimen, the total length of which was 235 millims. 

 and the distance from the mouth to the anus 72 millims., the 

 length of the entire intestine was 109 millims. — that is, to the 

 oesophagus 16 miirims., the first stomach 30 millims., the 

 second 11 millims., the small intestine 26 millims., and the 

 spiral valve together with the rectum 26 millims. 



The narrow kidneys are situated on the sides of the vertebral 



